


To Think, To Dream

by afteriwake



Category: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-18
Updated: 2012-09-18
Packaged: 2017-11-14 12:43:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/515353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River thinks and River dreams while she saves the world with her modified DNA.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Think, To Dream

_I thought I’d killed them all. I thought it would be over, that things would be all right again. The ship would fly, we would continue on how we had before. Only this time Simon and I wouldn’t be fugitives, and I would be a little more normal. Guess that wasn’t what was supposed to happen._

The hospital was deserted this time. It wasn’t bustling with patients and doctors and medical staff. It was eerily quiet, like the life that had been in the hospital had been snuffed out in an instant. But it hadn’t been an instant, it had been days. Maybe a week…no one really knew because no one had survived to tell the tale, and the people outside the hospital had been killed, too.

_”We have to keep runnin’,” Mal says. “Have to keep runnin’ till they’re gone.” But they’re not gone. They’re here, they’re there, they’re everywhere. There’s no permanent escape from them, only temporary hiding places. They’re hunting, and we’re the prey._

It smelled like death, which meant it must not have happened that long ago. And then you saw them: the bodies, lining the hallways, in the beds, behind desks and expensive hospital equipment. There were so many. The hospital was meant to hold a few thousand people, between patients and doctors and staff, and it looked like about that many had died.

_We went to all the places we’d hid at before, and then Simon suggests we go to the “academy.” I don’t want to go back, not there, but Simon thinks it’s safe. There had been hints since the news of Miranda came out that the Alliance had lost power; when Simon made communication with the same people who’d helped him free me, they said all the places like that were deserted. We all hoped they were right._

They only had to stay in this death filled building long enough to get some medical equipment. They knew exactly what they were looking for, because Simon had shown them. In fact, Simon was in the lead, navigating his way around corpses with everyone following. It was safe, for the moment, but no one knew if they’d be back. No one had stayed behind on the ship, for fear that they’d be found and tortured and raped and worse.

_The building was deserted, and it looked as though it had been vacated long before they came, long before the Alliance’s mistake came to bite them again. They hadn’t found this place, and we were safe. There was food, and water, and we were safe. We could hide there, Zoe said. We’d be okay for a while there._

It didn’t take long to get it all together, and to get back to the ship safely. While they were in the hospital Simon had grabbed some more medical supplies. Just in case, he’d said. After all, Zoe was expecting a baby, and there were things they needed for that that they just didn’t have where they were hiding. Jayne and Mal were the only ones who had broken away from the group, and they went to the kitchens to get more food. It was just going to go to waste with everyone dead, so why not?

_Simon wanted to see if there were records, about me. About what had been done to me. And there were. He read through them, and I could see him getting angrier and angrier as he read it, until the end. And then he got a look, a look I hadn’t seen in a long time, when something dawned on his, something that could solve a problem. And that was when he said we needed to go back to Ariel, back to the hospital. We needed to go there to defeat the Reavers, once and for all._

\--

“You about done there, Doc?” Jayne asked, looking at Simon, who was going through the equipment they’d taken. 

“Just about,” Simon said with a slight nod. “I just need to extract some of her DNA, and then I can really get to work.”

“Alright,” Jayne said with a nod. “Zoe needs to see ya first, though. Damn morning sickness is makin’ her cranky. Inara’s tryin’ to help her out, but it ain’t working all the time.”

Simon smiled slightly. “Once I get the sample and start the process to extract the virus, I can go give her a look.”

“This virus…it gonna be dangerous to us?” Jayne asked nervously.

“According to the notes I read, it worked on the Reaver they’d captured, but done nothing to the normal person they’d tested it on.”

“What it’d do to the Reaver?” 

“Killed him,” Simon said, turning away from the equipment to look at Jayne. “Are you okay with that?”

“A virus that kills Reavers? Hell, if it’d help I’d offer up my shooting skills to shoot it at ‘em.” Jayne grinned, just a little. “Anything to get rid of the hwoon dahn.”

“Once it’s released into the atmosphere they’ll be exposed,” Simon said. “Kaylee already figured out a way to do that. And then…the Reavers will finally be gone.”

“Good thing they’re all gathered on this planet, ain’t it?” Jayne mused.

“Yes, we were very fortunate.” He then went over to his sister, who he’d given a sedative too. “Okay, mei-mei. Time for you to help save us all,” he said quietly.

\--

_”Ni cho lyen, yo may yo? Do I have a worried face? Simon, that’s silly. I’m not worried. You’ll do it all right, I know it.”_

_“You really think so, mei-mei?”_

_“I know it. I’m smarter than you, remember?”_

“She’s not waking up,” Kaylee said nervously as River slowly came back to conciousness.

“Give it some time,” Simon said, though a note of worry was creeping into his own voice. A tiny note, but it was there nonetheless.

“But Simon…wait! There! Her eyes are flutterin’!”

Simon grinned as River opened her eyes and blinked. “Simon?” she asked, her voice quiet and sleep tinged.

“You’re awake, mei-mei,” he said with a warm smile. “And I’m all done.”

“Did it work?” River asked sitting up a little more. She felt lightheaded and then laid back down.

“We don’t know quite yet,” Kaylee said. “Captain said he and Jayne are gonna take turns going out and checkin’. But Jayne said he saw a couple Reavers out huntin’ drop dead on the ground, so we’re thinkin’ it’s gonna work.”

River shut her eyes again. “It will work,” she said softly, drifting back into sleep. This time, she thought no thoughts, and only dreamed of a time before the Alliance, before the Reavers, before learning about Miranda. She dreamed of her childhood, and of Simon and her parents, and she was at peace.


End file.
